Modi’s promised Ram temple is set to open and resonate with Hindus ahead of India’s election

NEW DELHI (AP) — Frenzied preparations were underway Wednesday in India’s northern holy city of Ayodhya to mark the opening of a grand temple for Lord Ram, Hinduism’s most revered deity.

The Ram Mandir’s opening Monday would fulfill a decadeslong Hindu nationalist pledge that is expected to resonate with voters during the upcoming national election expected in April or May.

Several sprawling tent cities were being erected nearby to accommodate tens of thousands of devotees who are expected to attend. Dozens of private jets will fly India’s powerful elite, including top industrialists, movie stars and celebrities, to Ayodhya to see the ceremony. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has planned live screenings across the country, as well as at some Indian embassies across the world.

Modi will be in attendance, alongside several Hindu priests, for the consecration ceremony in which a statue of Ram is to be placed in the temple’s inner sanctum.

Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party has long campaigned for the temple to replace the 16th-century Babri Mosque that was demolished by Hindu mobs in 1992, sparking nationwide riots that killed more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. The decadeslong dispute ended in 2019 when, in a controversial decision, India’s Supreme Court granted the site to Hindus and gave a different plot of land to Muslims for a mosque.

The temple’s opening at one of India’s most contentious religious sites ahead of the national polls scheduled for the spring is expected to give major momentum to Modi as he looks to extend his rule for a record third-consecutive term by drawing on the religious sentiments of Hindus, who make up about 80% of India’s population.

The temple, a three-story